The present invention relates to an information delivering system and an information delivering method capable of providing customers with information by the use of three-dimensional content.
With the recent advances in the communication technology such as the Internet, it is acknowledged that users retrieve a variety of information items through communication terminals. When a unit of information is retrieved through such a communication network, it is required that the unit of information is compact and portable without compromising the quality of the information in order to meet the requirement of real-time speed of the information.
The following are some examples as follows:    (a) A successful bid is made in a net auction to get an article or one's home.    (b) Information about a ticket booking or part-time jobs is obtained online through a communication terminal placed in a convenience store or the like.    (c) Information about bargain offers or sales times of the stores near the current location is obtained online through a mobile phone.
In this situation, the user can retrieve desired information through the windows as illustrated in FIG. 1 to FIG. 2.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an exemplary set of the images through which the user retrieves desired information about a net auction. At first, after clicking “Enter” in the window P101, the window P102 is linked and opened with an indication of “please select a category”. The user selects a category of “computer” or “living” in P102. When the category of “Computers” is selected and clicked, the window P103 is linked and opened to provide subcategories such as “Hardware”, “Software” and so forth which are subdivisions of the computer category. Also, when the category of “Living” is selected and clicked in the window P102, the window P104 is linked and opened to provide subcategories such as “Accommodation Tickets”, “Home Furnishing” and so forth which are subdivisions of the living category. One of the subcategories in the window P103 and the window P104 is clicked to review the list of articles placed on the auction.
Also, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an exemplary window opened when the user refers to the seat information of tickets. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the arrangement of seats so that the user selects a desired seat therefrom with reference to this plan view.
However, in accordance with the conventional method of providing information, there is a limitation to the information obtained at one time so that it is necessary to open a number of windows before the user acquires a desired unit of information.
Also, the conventional method of providing information is based upon a routine way which has been commonly and broadly used, and therefore the interface can hardly be said to attract the user's interest. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide an interface attractive to users.
In order to solve these shortcomings, a method of providing information in the form of three-dimensional content has been proposed rather than the conventional method of providing information in the form of two-dimensional content. However, in the case of three-dimensional content, the data structure is very complicated so that, from a practical standpoint, it is difficult for people at large to handle the data. For example, when the data has to be modified, it is necessary to ask again the creator of the three-dimensional content for the modification. Also, in a case where the data size of the three-dimensional content is large while the available infrastructure is restricted, that three-dimensional content is hard to deal with. Irrespective of the widely known fact that the use of such three-dimensional content is quite effective, there are limitations on the application of three-dimensional content.